1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a multi-ballast lighting and control system, and, more particularly, to a handheld programmer for a lighting control system including a plurality of programmable fluorescent electronic dimming ballasts, occupancy sensors, daylight sensors and infrared receivers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Remote control and monitoring of electrical/electronic devices, such as load control devices of a lighting control system, is known. For example, the Digital Addressable Lighting Interface (“DALI”) communication protocol allows for digital addressing of the control devices of lighting control systems. Control devices can use the DALI protocol to communicate with a load control device, for example, to adjust the intensity of a lighting load, by sending commands over a communication network. Using the DALI protocol, each control device has its own individual digital address, for example, thus enabling remote communication with the control device. Accordingly, loads can be switched on and off by commands issued by a remote console. A central controller processes the commands and issues commands in response to control the load control devices. The load control device may be operable to control, for example, a lighting load, such as an incandescent lamp or a fluorescent lamp, or a motor load, such as a motorized window treatment.
In recent years, large-scale lighting systems have been developed to meet the needs of lighting applications with distributed resources and centralized control. For example, building lighting systems are often controlled on a floor-by-floor basis or as a function of the occupancy space used by independent groups in the building. Taking a floor of a building as an example, each room on the floor may have different lighting requirements depending on a number of factors including occupancy, time of day, tasks ongoing in a given room, security and so forth, for example.
When a number of rooms are linked together for lighting purposes, control of lighting in those rooms can be centralized over a network. For example, while power to various lighting modules can be supplied locally, control functions and features of the lighting system can be directed through a control network that sends and receives messages between a controller and various lighting system components. For instance, a room with an occupancy sensor may deliver occupancy-related messages over the network to inform the controller of the occupancy condition of the given room. If the room becomes occupied, the lighting controller can cause the lighting in that room to turn on, or be set to a specified dimming level.
When messages are exchanged in the lighting control network, a protocol is employed to permit the various network components to communicate with each other. The DALI protocol represents a convention for communication adopted by lighting manufacturers and designers to permit simple messages to be communicated over a lighting network in a reasonably efficient manner. The DALI protocol calls for a 19-bit message to be transmitted among various network components to obtain a networked lighting control. The 19-bit message is composed of address bits and command bits, as well as control bits for indicating the operations to be performed with the various bit locations and the message. For example, one type of message provides a 6-bit address and an 8-bit command to deliver a command to the addressed network component. By using this protocol technique, sixty-four different devices may be addressed on the lighting network to provide the network control. A large number of commands can be directed to the addressable devices, including such commands as setting a power-on level, fade time and rates, group membership and so forth.
A conventional lighting control system, such as a system conforming to the DALI protocol, includes a hardware controller for controlling ballasts in the system. Typically, the controller is coupled to the ballasts in the system via a single digital serial interface, wherein data is transferred. A disadvantage of this single interface is that the bandwidth of the interface limits the amount of message traffic that can reasonably flow between the controller and the ballasts. This can also create delays in times to commands.
Typical DALI lighting control systems require a “bus power supply,” which supplies power to the DALI communication bus. The DALI communication bus consists of a two-wire link with one wire supplying a DC voltage, e.g., 18 VDC, and the other wire as common. The bus power supply generates the DC voltage required to allow the devices on the DALI bus to communicate. In order to transmit a bit on the DALI communication bus, a device will “short” out the link for a brief period of time. If the bus power supply fails, the devices connected to the DALI bus will not be able to communicate.
A prior art electronic dimming ballast may comprise front end, which includes an a rectifier for producing a rectified DC voltage from an AC mains supply and a boost converter for generating a boosted DC bus voltage from the rectified DC voltage. The DC bus voltage is provided to a back end, which includes an inverter for generating a high-frequency AC voltage from the DC bus voltage and an output filter for coupling the high-frequency AC voltage to the lighting load for powering the lighting load. The front end and the band end of a prior art ballast is described in greater detail in U.S. Pat. No. 6,674,248, issued Jan. 6, 2004, entitled “Electronic Ballast”, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Often, the ballast may include a processing section, for example, comprising a microprocessor, which receives multiple inputs. The inputs may be received from the ballast itself, e.g., an input concerning the magnitude of the DC bus voltage or an input concerning the output lamp current or the output lamp voltage. In addition, the inputs to the processing section may be received from an external sensor, such as an external photocell sensor or an external occupancy sensor. Furthermore, the processing section has a communication port that transmits and receives information via the DALI communications protocol. The processing section is powered by a power supply, which receives the rectified DC voltage from the rectifying circuit. An example of a ballast that comprises a microprocessor and in operable to receive a plurality of inputs, specifically, inputs from external sensors, is described in greater detail in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/824,248, filed Apr. 14, 2004, entitled “Multiple Input Electronic Ballast with Processor”, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Systems for wirelessly controlling an electrical device are also known. For example, some prior art systems are operable to control the status of electrical devices such as electric lamps, from a remote location via wireless communication links, including radio frequency (RF) links or infrared (IR) links. Status information regarding the electrical devices (e.g., on, off and intensity level) is typically transmitted between specially adapted lighting control devices and at least one master control unit. One example prior art system that includes configurable devices and wireless control devices that are provided by the assignee of the present patent application is commercially known as the RADIO RA wireless lighting control system. The RADIO RA system is described in greater detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,442, issued May 18, 1999, entitled, “Method and Apparatus for Controlling and Determining the Status of Electrical Devices from Remote Locations”, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
In spite of the convenience provided by remote control and monitoring systems, such as provided by the DALI protocol, control devices that may be physically located far from each other or are otherwise disparate devices, each having its own individual digital address, must be individually selected and configured to the group, typically by referencing a table of devices and/or zones. When faced with a massive list of thousands of individual control devices, the task associated with defining various groups of individual devices is daunting.
Accordingly, configuring a prior art lighting control system can take a substantial amount of time. For example, each of the individual load control devices and the associated lighting load may identified by name or number in a table, and must be located by a user in order to add the load control device to a group. Further, a plurality of individual lighting fixtures may be assigned to respective zones. Accordingly, a user must navigate through a large table of many zones, each representing a plurality of lighting fixtures, in order to define groups of lights for various patterns, such as described above. Such a table of zones is not intuitive, and tasks associated with defining various lighting patterns based upon hundreds or even thousands of zones, many of which may include several or many lighting fixtures, is problematic.
When a single ballast requires replacement, for example, due to a failure, the prior art lighting control systems provide a method for replacing a single ballast. First, the failed ballast is removed and a new ballast is installed in its place. Next, a query is sent over the communication link from the controller to identify which particular ballast is unassigned. When the new and unassigned ballast responds, the controller transmits programming settings and configuration information of the failed ballast to the new ballast. The programming settings and configuration information are stored in the new replacement ballast. The programming settings and configuration information may include, for example, settings related to a high end trim, a low end trim, a fade time and an emergency intensity level.
While automatic methods for ballast replacement may be useful to replace a single ballast, it is ineffective to replace a plurality of ballasts, since each of the plurality of ballast will require respective setting and configuration information transmitted thereto. Multiple unassigned ballasts cannot be distinguished from each other, and, accordingly, there is no way in the prior art to automatically provide respective setting and configuration information for each of a plurality of ballasts.
Furthermore, in the prior art devices, programming is accomplished from a master console or from keypads. It is desirable to be able to program the intelligent ballast of a lighting control in a wireless, handheld device.